


Somewhere Between

by Nochi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, alcohol mention, babies ever after, commission
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2014-10-10
Packaged: 2018-02-20 15:52:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2434451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nochi/pseuds/Nochi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They grew up and they settled down, but something had to happen in the middle of all that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Commissioned by unsuborsuper on Tumblr! You, too, can commission me at piplup-commander!

Zuko had helped bring peace to the world, but peace was taking its own sweet time to reach him. Ever since he was a child, there had been _something_ pushing him, a pressure at his back to move forward, move on. Find the Avatar. Join the Avatar. Defeat the Fire Lord. _Become_ Fire Lord. Even after the war had ended, he had found no peace. There was a century of trust to rebuild between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation itself to reintroduce to the world as an ally rather than a dreaded enemy, and the Harmony Restoration Movement, which was a whole different set of headaches on its own...sitting down at the end of the day was almost as exhausting as the rest of it. The quiet pressed in on him, a relentless feeling that there was _something_ he needed to be doing with this time, mingling with the knowledge that he wasn't getting any younger, and fixing what his father and his father's father had done to the world would take longer than his own lifetime. It kept him awake, piercing through calming teas and whatever his doctors laced it with to leave him staring at the ceiling.

Life moves on, however, and he found his home much noisier in the evenings, and his insomnia became a boon when little nightmares struck. It was much better to sit and watch those thin little shoulders rise and fall than it was to wait uselessly for the sun to rise. And soon he found a sort of meditation in it, the rhythm of her breathing giving him a sense of... _something_. It made him think of his uncle, and of the smell of the ocean.

Then it dawned on him - contentment. Coming to peace with his new role. Yes, restoring the world would take more time than he had. But he would leave her in a better place to continue on with it. His legacy would not be a burden to shoulder, it would give her pride. He would pace the floor at night so that she could sleep soundly. His migraines would leave her brow unfurrowed. She was why it was worth it.

She was his something.


	2. Chapter 2

"Toph."

Silence. 

" _Toph_." 

" _What_ , Sokka."

"I don’t think this is something I want to do."

"Too bad, Melonlord commands it."

"You are 22 years old, do you think you could maybe drop the Melonlord thing?"

"Melonlords are appointed for life."

"...you're making that up."

"Are you calling Melonlord a liar?" She reached out and caught his arm, dragging him along the main path of the small town. "Come on, we never got to do stuff like this before."

"We were _kids_ before."

"Exactly!" She more or less kicked the door to the tavern open, inhaling deeply. "Smell that, Sokka."

"I never trust you when you say that," he muttered, taking a tentative sniff anyway. He immediately choked on the smell of sawdust and strong beer. "I think my lungs are trying to evacuate my body," he wheezed.

"Isn't it great?" Toph plopped herself on a barstool, signaling for the bartender to give them two drinks. Sokka stared at her for a moment, a skeptical look on his face, before settling next to her. "You've already been here, haven't you."

"Like every night this week, why?"

"So this is more about you making me embarrass myself in public for your own twisted amusement."

"What's the matter, Sokka, can't hold your liquor?" Her smile was a mocking challenge, and Sokka felt the familiar sense of indignation welling up in his chest.

''No,'' a voice in the back of his head countered. ''You're an adult now. You have developed self-control. You don't have to give in to every challenge to your manhood. That's exactly what she wants, anyway.''

The voice was never heard from again, presumably because it drowned as Sokka grabbed the mug off the counter and chugged. 

This happened at least three more times, with a brief pause to see a man about an ostrichorse, and after that counting was hard. 

"Seven," Toph said decisively. "You had seven. You are a _lightweight_ , Mister Sokka Watertribe." 

"You only had like five," Sokka protested. It was hard to be too mad at her, she made an excellent walking stick at her height. He was pretty sure she was using earthbending to keep herself (and by extension, him) upright, though he wasn't sure how easy that was in her state.

"I am petite," Toph countered. "It doesn't take as much."

"That...that is the first time I have ever heard you..." He paused, squinting at the sky as though it held the word he was searching for. "Admit! That is the first time I have heard you admit you are tiny." 

The ground was not comfortable. He whined as much, rolling over to look up at Toph. "Why'd you do that?"

" _Petite_ ," she said, emphasizing each syllable (and adding at least one, he was pretty sure). "Not tiny."

"You are pretty tiny, Toph." He blinked up at her, the halo of blurred stars around her blurred head.

She huffed at him, crossing her arms. "If I'm so tiny I guess I can't help you walk home." She turned around on her heel, stumbled, swore, and fell a few feet away from Sokka.

"Does Melonlord need help?" Sokka asked after a moment. 

"Melonlord is unscathed." Her voice was muffled, like she had landed face-down. Which was exactly the case, he realized when he managed to get himself upright. "Don't even know why I brought you," she muttered. "Katara's rubbing off on you. Should have come alone."

"Katara would have lectured you out of the bar and all the way back to the house," he pointed out. Focusing on walking seemed to be sobering him up slightly. Slightly. "Besides, what if your _petiteness_ made you drink too much and get sick?" Toph was quiet for a while. Sokka glanced at her, long since accustomed to how her eyes stared at nothing.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. You didn't know your limit."

More silence.

"You could have just asked me. That's kind of the point of this whole friendship thing we have going? You're allowed to ask me for help when you need it. Drunk, sick, being chased by people you owe money...anything. Ever."

Silence for a long while this time. They were almost back to the house when Toph finally spoke.

"Melonlord needs help from no one."

Sokka chuckled. "Of course not."


	3. Chapter 3

If there was a single person more nervous than Sokka pacing across the stone courtyard, it was Aang. The years had strengthened his jaw (currently clenched) and given him laugh lines, but the horrified glances he gave the door every time Katara screamed or groaned were just the same as ten years ago.

"Come on," Sokka said finally, seeing the actual path Aang was managing to wear in the stone. "This can take hours."

"It's been hours."

"Lots of hours. Come on, we won't go far." Sokka grabbed the Avatar by the collar and pulled him towards the nearest balcony.

"I should have taken her to the city," Aang muttered. "There are doctors there, from Ba Sing Se..."

"Yeah, well, my grandmother would probably have killed you in cold blood," Sokka said, shrugging. "She hasn't lost one yet." Aang did not look comforted. "Look, the kid will meet your other baby soon enough." That got a smile out of his friend, albeit a tired one. "Besides, you should be excited! This is the birth of the new air empire! You'll rule from Air Temple Island with an iron air-fist!"

"That's...not exactly in line with the monks' teachings," Aang said, but his smile was much more relaxed now. "I don't want to put all of that on him. Or her. Oh man, what if it's a _girl_? I'm barely ready for a _boy_ , what am I gonna do with a _girl_?"

"Aang. Buddy. Relax." Sokka was secretly excited for the possibility of a niece to make thoroughly unladylike in spite of his sister's efforts, but the point was to make Aang calm down before he started some kind of anxiety tornado. "You never actually quit being a kid yourself. You'll be a great dad."

"Kids aren't great dads," Aang retorted, leaning against the railing. In the distance, the latticework of Republic City stood starkly against the sky. "We should have waited," he said, so quietly Sokka barely heard him. "The city, dealing with Hou-Ting..." He made a face at the thought of the Earth Queen. "There's so much going on."

"Eh, you're never going to have the luxury of boredom," Sokka said, leaning backwards against the rail. "If you try to put this off because you're 'too busy', it'll never happen."

Aang smiled softly at his friend. "That was pretty wise, Sokka."

"Yeah, well, with enough practice you don't have to pull the beard out _every_ time." Aang snorted at that, cutting it short when an Air Acolyte called his name across the courtyard.

"It's a boy!" she squealed, unable to hide her own excitement. Sokka and Aang looked at each other for a single, gleeful moment, wearing matching smiles, and they both broke into a run across the courtyard.


End file.
